Wikipedia:Cleanup Taskforce/Metasyntactic variable
The concept of a metasyntactic variable is an advanced linguistic concept please feel free to contact me with questions and clarifications. kf4yfd (talk)
I am myself unable to write a description of this concept that is clear enough to relay the concept to all readers and need help.
Explanation of the concept
First, lets dissect the word metasyntactic variable:
- 'Meta' means information about, more comprehensive, or transcending.
- 'Syntax' means the grammatical arrangement of words or The grammatical rules of a programming language.
- 'Variable' means something that can assume a value, or something likely to vary.
- So we have a word that "transcends grammar and can assume a value".
- Or one that is "more comprehensive than grammatical arrangement and is likely to vary".
If this does not help to explain then please read on...
Explanation using analogy from algebra
We are all familiar with the concept of algebra, but lets give an example:
A B and C can be any value and this formula merely shows their relationship to one another. So far so good.
Now when we try to write a computer program that executes this function it would look something like this
function FOO(void){
int x; int y:
c = x y ; }
Problems with the article / recommendations
- The article for metasyntactic variable has been intermixed with the placeholder name article.
- Also we need to move the "nonsense words" section to its own article so as not to confuse the concept.
- Many words used as metasyntactic variable are nonsense words, but nonsense words are not metasyntactic variable unless used as such.